29 Winning Photos From The 2022 "inFocus" Nature And Wildlife Photography Competition That Show The Resilience Of Nature And Wildlife

Bored Panda reached out to the editor and one of the Jury members Radha Rangarajan who is part of the Nature inFocus Photography Awards We were wondering how the overall winner of the competition was picked, and here's what Radha told us, "At Nature inFocus, we normally select one overall winner from the list of winners of the main categories. However, in 2022, we introduced a new category called Photographer of the Year — Portfolio, where participants were asked to submit a series of images that work together to tell a powerful story on natural history or wildlife and environmental conservation."

"We received a couple of thousand images in this category, and the portfolios were reviewed first by an internal preliminary judging team at Nature inFocus. Shortlisted portfolios were then reviewed and scored by the jury members, based on originality, authenticity, aesthetic values, technical proficiency, and most importantly, the quality and impact of the story the images tell. The overall winner this year, Fernando Martinez Belmar, narrated a riveting story about the plight of the endangered jaguars in Mexico through stunning images."

The editor also told us a little bit about the main goal of the competition, "The main goal of Nature inFocus Photography Awards is to highlight and celebrate the best of photography in the space of natural history and environmental and wildlife conservation. We aim to throw a spotlight on many issues that plague the environment and its wild denizens by showcasing these photographs to the world. Photographs have the power and ability to bring about change by spreading awareness. We believe that awareness is key, because one only conserves what they know and love."

The competition's website also advertises a certain festival, which got us intrigued. We took the opportunity to ask Radha to tell us a little bit more about it too.

"The Nature inFocus Festival is an annual event that brings together the community of wildlife photographers, filmmakers, conservationists, researchers, students, enthusiasts and nature travellers. The festival is a buzzing space where over a weekend, the community gets the opportunity to interact with people who love wildlife and work for the same causes. Talks, panel discussions, photography showcases, film screenings and many other interactive sessions take place.

The results of the annual Nature inFocus Photography Awards and Film Awards get announced at the event, and all the winning images get exhibited along with images that made it to the final round of judging. The Festival last took place in 2019 and has not been held during the years of the pandemic due to logistical challenges. The next edition will take place in 2023."

We think that without any doubt, organizing a competition on this scale must not have been easy, and to prove the said statement, Radha gave us an overall timeline of how long it takes to organize something like that. 

"It takes our team close to 4 weeks to put together the website and communication plan before the contest is announced. We normally keep the contest open for submissions for 3 months. It takes us about ~3 months to complete all rounds of judging, verification and deliberations and announce the results. A key element to the contest has been the grand award ceremony that takes place at the Nature inFocus Festival, along with the photography exhibition that is held at the Festival venue. In the last three years, due to uncertainties and logistical troubles that the pandemic has brought in, we haven’t been able to offer this to the participants, and that has been a challenge. We are grateful to the participants who continue to participate and submit their entries!"

Given how many photographers from all over the world participated in the contest, we hoped that Rangarajan could share a little secret with us as choosing favorites from over 21 thousand pictures must not have been easy for the judges. Bored Panda asked Radha if by any chance he and the judging team had any personal photos they really liked even if they didn’t make it to the final categories.

"Judging is very subjective and personal by nature, so this is bound to happen! I can’t speak for the rest of the judging team, but over repeated viewings of the entries, I did have a few favourites that I kept rooting for, quietly. For various reasons, they didn’t earn enough scores to make it to the final round, but they will remain close to my heart!"